Boston Massacre Took Place on March 5, 1770

On March 5,1770, British troops fired into a crowd of Bostonians; four people were killed and a fifth  victim died a few days later. 

The episode became known as the Boston Massacre and is said to have sparked the American Revolution.  The shooting came after a tense week of acrimony between Bostonians and the British soldiers, which included a fist fight in a local tavern, small skirmishes on the streets and taunting threats by both sides.

There are several Irish connections to the Boston Massacre:

. The soldiers involved were from the 29th British regiment, led by Captain Thomas Preston.  The regiment was mostly Irish soldiers who had been conscripted, often against their will.  The names of the troops involved in the shooting were William Wemms, James Hartigan, William McCauley, Matthew Kilroy, William Warren, John Carroll and Hugh Montgomery.

. It was Captain Preston who ordered his men to present arms to keep the crowd at bay, but the taunting continued.  Only years later was it revealed that the person who yelled out the fatal call to fire on the citizens was Montgomery.

. Thirty-one year old Patrick Carr, an Irish leather-worker who had come out of a house on Court Street and was moving toward the ruckus with fellow sailor Charles Connor, was the last man to be shot. He lingered for a few days and was able to give dying testimony that ultimately exonerated the soldiers.  Carr and the other four victims are buried at the Old Granary Burying Ground. 

. According to an account by John Adams, Carr "died of his wounds on the 14th was buried in on the 17th in the same grave with his murdered associates."

. John Adams also spoke of an Irishman named James Forrest, who was a friend of Captain Preston.  "I was sitting in my office, near the steps of the Town house stairs, Mr. Forrest came in who was then called the Irish infant.  I had some acquaintance with him.  With tears streaming from his eyes he said, 'I am come with a very solemn message from a very unfortunate man, Captain Preson, in prison. He wishes for council and can get none." After a discussion, Forrest offered Adams 'a single guineas as a retaining fee and I readily accepted it."

. As the trial of Preston and his men loomed, an anti-Catholic dimension emerged.  The Boston Gazette revealed that many of the soldiers the British sent to Boston were Irish Catholics, while the Providence Gazette suggested that Pope's Day, a virulent anti-Catholic event, should take place on the anniversary of the Boston Massacre so as to include Preston and the others in the effigy burning.

. Adams described the Boston mob as "a motley rabble of saucy boys, negroes and mulattoes, Irish teaques and outlandish jack tars."

. The famous drawing of the Boston Massacre by engraver Paul Revere was actually done by 21 year old Henry Pelham, half brother of artist John Singleton Copley.  Their mother, Mary Singleton Copley, had emigrated to Boston from County Clare in Ireland in 1736.  Pelham was furious when he learned that his friend Revere had used his illustration without Pelham's permission.

. Over a century after the Massacre, in 1888, the Boston Massacre Memorial was unveiled on Boston Common, Irish-born poet John Boyle O'Reilly was selected to write and deliver a poem for the ceremony.  The memorial was created by sculptor Robert Krauss.    

Find out more about Boston's role in the Revolutionary War by visiting Revolution 250, an organization preparing to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the nation's founding in 2026.

For more about Boston's Irish history, visit IrishHeritageTrail.com. 

This information is taken from Irish Boston: A Lively Look at Boston's Colorful Irish Past, published by Globe Pequot Press  in 2013.